Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-18
FROM AUSTIN.
Record for The Week OF the Doings
OF the Lawmakers OF
the State.
Bills Passed and Bills Proposed-work
Good, Bad and Indiffsrent-Notes,
Gossip and Chatter.
THE UNLAWFUL NcLosURE BILL.

THE UNLAWFUL ENCLOSURE BILL.
! Special to the Gazette.
AUSTIN, TEX, Feb. I2.-When the I'M
lawful Enclosure bill was called up in the
Senate this morning, Senator Terrell
made a motion to lay it on the table sub
iect to call. The motion WAS the occasion
CT lively debate between Senators Ter
rell, Houston, Pope and Douglass. Sen
etor Terrell urged no objections against
! the features of the DILL, but desired that
no action should be taken toward the
| passage until the general land bill came
up for q nearing, that it might prove to
| DE practicable to incorporate the features
of the Enclosure bill in the land bill and
obviate the necessity of separate legisla-
| ton on the same subject.
Senator Houston claimed there were
only two points in the bill, one declaring
| the offense to be felony and the other
! prescribing the penalty. He strenuously
| opposed laying the bill on the table sub
! leCt to call; that 1t was now called up as
& general order after several postpone
ments, ana he urged the Senate TO con-
slider it upon its merits. He thought
! there could be nothing gained by delay,
and was opposed to encumbering the
| general land bill with g matter that
| should be the subject of special legisla-
| ton. During his speech he alluded to
an instance where man wound his coil
of wire around an old mans land, who
demanded pay for the use of it and was
told that if it did not suit him he could
take his land out OF the Enclosure.
Senator Pope was opposed to lay
ing the bill on the table subject
10 call because the Senate had been given
ample time to consider the merits of the
bill, and, like Senator Houston, he con-
sidereG that there were only two ques-
| tions, the felony and punishment clauses
1t could be made more effective by sep
aratiOn FROM the general law on the land
question.
The motion carried and the bill passed
subject to call.
IMPOSSIBLE UNDER EXISTING LAWS
The special committee appointed to in
quire into the condition of lands granted
TO railroads and to report whether they
had complied with the law requiring
( them to ALLEVIATE their lands, reported
that it was impossible under the existing
laws to gain any reliable data. They
recommended that the law be amended
so as to require more specific reports
from the railroads.
REPORTED FAYORABLY.
Mr. Browning's bill to make it penal
offense to sell fresh beef without produc-
ing the hides or ears so that the owner
snip can be identified, was reported favor
ably by the committee to day.
A FORGERY.
20
came TO the Comptroller's Office to-day
to be transferred. he letter to the
Comptroller read:
TEMPLE, TIN, Feb. 10, 1887.
W. j. Swain, Esq, Comptroller, austin, Tex:
DEAR SIR-IncioseG | hand you COM
mercial traveller license No. 4097, issued
to h. NJ. Williams, August is, 1886, and
which has been transferred to me. Will
you kindly register the same in my name
and send back to me in the inClosed en-
yelOpe at your earliest convenience, and
oblige, Yours very truly
FRED RICHARDSON,
Box 259, Dallas, Tex.
The certificate accompanying this let
ter, like the c. A. Lilly certificate hereto
fore referred to in the columns of The
GAZETTE, has been tempered with, the
dates being changed by eTasure and in
sertion, changing the dates in the orig
inal from August is, 1885, to run one
year ending August 10, 1886, so that it
now reads from August is, 1886, to
August 10, 1857, which would defraud the
state of one years occupation tax.
AWAITING LEGISLATIVE ACTION.
The much sbused land board met to-
day and decided that all new business De
suspended until the Legislature has
acted on the question of what is to be
done with the land and who is going to
attend to it. The board, therefore, id
journed over until after the Legislature
had acted on the matter.
ROSS COUNTY IN EMBRYO.
WHAT might be called a local matter, in
so far as it concerns the interests of the
people of Hill, Limestone, Nc
Lehman and Navarro counties, but
one that becomes a state affair, by
reason of adding one more county
to the number into which the state is
sub-divlded, is becoming interesting.
Petitions for and against are so numer-
Gus and forcible in their protests and So
licitatiOns as to leave the legislator in
doubt "Whether the snake that made
the track was coming in or going out"
There is rumor in the air that a news
paper man received a draft to
urge its passage, which has rs sed
some complications by being protested
and returned from the point sent for col
lection, but THE GAZETTE reporter, not
able to trace It to reliable facts, will not
go into details until further developments.
JUDGE WILLIS INVESTIGATION.
Special to the Gazette.
AUSTIN, TEX, Feb. l5.-The special
committee appointed to investigate the
charges against Judge Willis met again
this morning All the witnesses for the
prosecution and defendant were recog-
nized and excluded from the committee
room until each in his turn was called to
testify. Judge Willis was again put on
the stand TO answer questions propounded
by Acknowledgement Hogg in cross-eXam-
nation CT his direct testimony given be-
fore the committee last week. In sub
stance his evidence is that he did
not remember distinctly whether he
knew what the Indictments we're for at
the time they were handed to him, but on
being further questioned by Mr.. Hogg he
admitted that he must have known
that the bill returned the
first day of the January term, 1886,
against Mr.. Goodnight was for violation
of the Enclosure act, also the other bill re-
turned against Mr.. Goodnight on the 9th,
two days afterwards. Afterwards on the
18th OF January, 1886, TWO days after the